It is well known that tumors have an acidic pH microenvironment and contain a high content of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). These features of the tumor microenvironment may provide physiochemical conditions that are suitable for selective tumor therapy and recognition. Here, for the first time, we demonstrate that a type of graphene oxide nanoparticle (N-GO) can exhibit peroxidase-like activities (i.e., can increase the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS)) under acidic conditions and catalyze the conversion of H 2 O 2 to ROShydroxyl radicals (HO • ) in the acidic microenvironment in Hela tumors. The concentrated and highly toxic HO • can then trigger necrosis of tumor cells. In the microenvironment of normal tissues, which has a neutral pH and low levels of H 2 O 2 , N-GOs exhibit catalase-like activity (scavenge ROS) that splits H 2 O 2 into O 2 and water (H 2 O), leaving normal cells unharmed. In the recognition of tumors, an inherent redox characteristic of dopamine is that it oxidizes to form dopamine− quinine under neutral (pH 7.4) conditions, quenching the fluorescence of N-GOs; however, this characteristic has no effect on the fluorescence of N-GOs in an acidic (pH 6.0) medium. This pH-controlled response provides an active targeting strategy for the diagnostic recognition of tumor cells. Our current work demonstrates that nanocatalytic N-GOs in an acidic and high-H 2 O 2 tumor microenvironment can provide novel benefits that can reduce drug resistance, minimize side effects on normal tissues, improve antitumor efficacy, and offer good biocompatibility for tumor selective therapeutics and specific recognition.

Nanoscale delivery based on polyethylene glycol (PEG)ylated graphene oxide (GO-PEG) merits attention for biomedical applications owing to its functional surface modification, superior solubility/biocompatibility and controllable drug release capability. However, impaired skin regeneration in applications of these fascinating nanomaterials in diabetes is still limited, and critical issues need to be addressed regarding insufficient collagen hyperplasia and inadequate blood supply. Therefore, a high-performance tissue engineering scaffold with biocompatible and biodegradable properties is essential for diabetic wound healing. Natural and artificial acellular dermal matrix (ADM) scaffolds with spatially organized collagen fibers can provide a suitable architecture and environment for cell attachment and proliferation. Here, a novel collagen-nanomaterial-drug hybrid scaffold was constructed from GO-PEG-mediated quercetin (GO-PEG/Que)-modified ADM (ADM-GO-PEG/Que). The resulting unique and versatile hybrid scaffold exhibited multiple advantages, including the following: a biocompatible, cell-adhesive surface for accelerating mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) attachment and proliferation; superior stability and adjustability of the conduction potential of quercetin for inducing the differentiation of MSCs into adipocytes and osteoblasts; and a biodegradable nanofiber interface for promoting collagen deposition and angiogenesis in diabetic wound repair. This study provides new prospects for the design of innovative GO-PEG-based collagen hybrid scaffolds for application in efficient therapeutic drug delivery, stem cell-based therapies, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

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We establish the composition-diamond lemma for associative nonunitary Rota-Baxter algebras of weight λ. To give an application, we construct a linear basis for a free commutative and nonunitary Rota-Baxter algebra, show that every countably generated Rota-Baxter algebra of weight 0 can be embedded into a two-generated Rota-Baxter algebra, and prove the 1 2 -PBW theorems for dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras.

A theoretical model is established for dealing with second-harmonic generation (SHG) in type I collagen excited by linearly polarized light focused by a microscope. With this model, the effects of the polarization angle alpha, numerical aperture (NA), as well as the ratio of hyperpolarizability rho=beta(xxx)beta(xyy) on SHG emission have been investigated. Simulation results reveal that SHG emission power changes periodically as alpha. The use of lower NA leads to weaker SHG emission but is more concentrated in two closer lobes, whereas more distributed emission in two detached lobes appear at higher NA. As the introduction of polarization direction, which is not along with the fiber axis (alpha not equal0 deg), one more element beta(xyy) is valid in our case than beta(xxx) alone, while their ratio rho plays a very important role for collagen features characterization. SHG emission with rho shows complicated modality that SHG emission is different at different alpha and not symmetric at +/-rho except at alpha=0 deg, suggesting the important impact of polarization working on rho for SHG emission. Our theoretical simulation results provide useful clues for experimental study of microscopic SHG emission in collagen excited by linearly polarized beam.